Monday.com vs Rework: A (little biased but honest) comparison

Let me guess. If you are reading this article, you must have used, or must be using, or at least be thinking about using Monday.com, and there’s something about it that holds you back, therefore you are looking for some alternative. I’m grateful for any force there is that sent you this article so you can get to know us. 

I’ll be straightforward: this is not going to be a completely fair comparison. Surely people from Monday.com will have different things to say. We also haven’t really used Monday.com that much at our work (of course, we use Rework); this review is based on our experience with Monday.com free trial system, our understanding from building management tools ourselves, and collected reviews of Monday.com from the Internet and also from our own customers. 

But, since you are in need of some alternative, just take a look at what we have to offer. What if that could be the thing you’re missing from Monday? 

Disclaimer: In this article, I only focus on Monday Work management product. Monday has recently launched some variables like Monday CRM, Monday Dev, and Monday Service (Beta) with in-depth features for different use cases, yet each has a separate pricing. Monday Work management is still their most popular product. 

First thing first, pricing!

Many of the bad reviews I see about Monday are about their costly pricing. 

Good news for you, Rework is wayyy more affordable than Monday. We also offer flat pricing: 6$/user/month for everything. No limitation on file storage. No “upgrade to unlock new features”. No counting on every automation or integration you make. Our view on this: If a product is made perfect the way it is, why hide features from users and make them pay to experience it as a whole?

(Little) bad news: We do not offer a monthly payment option, and you must pay for at least 10 users. Our product is about management and collaboration across departments, so we don’t think it makes sense if there are too few people on board. The yearly bill equals commitment from both sides so that Rework can bring real changes to your operation system. 

What about the 14-day free trial and free plan? We don’t have an exact policy like that, but we do offer trial accounts. However, instead of handing you the accounts and letting you figure out the system on your own, we only do that after having scheduled a demo meeting, walking you through the system, and explaining the best way for you to use Rework. 

Does that sound convincing enough for you to continue reading? 

The fundamentals

The two applications both position themselves as an Operation System. So before giving you a yes-no feature list, we think it’d be better to compare their approaches to the Operation concept, which will be reflected in how they are differently designed. 

Let’s get back to basics: What is Operation? 

According to Merriam-Webster, operation is the “performance of a practical work or of something involving the practical application of principles or processes.” 

Simply defined, it is about performing processes to get work done.  

Therefore, in order to capture Operation, we have to capture both the Processes (HOW things are going) and the Work, or the Data (WHAT things are generated).  

Let’s summarize it in an illustration like this. 

When you first start with Monday, you will see rows and columns, which remind you of the classic Excel. Just like Excel sheets are built around cells, Monday structure comes down to “items”. That’s the Data. 

In an attempt to “get work done”, which means to perform Processes, Monday goes one step further by adding custom Automation builders, which means you can define almost any repeated action by connecting items within a sheet (or “board” in Monday’s language) or even across multiple sheets. 

Screenshot from Monday.com website

Now, the problem with Monday is unless you pay the extra $12 per seat per month, you’re left with the Data, a mere recording system, causing no more than frustration for any employees working on it. And even on the $12 plan, you’re limited to only 250 automation actions per month, which will quickly become insufficient for most businesses since every process requires automation. 

To properly operate on Monday, expect to pay at least $24 per user each month. 

If you find that pricing affordable, Monday (with automation) is undeniably powerful. Almost everything you imagine, you have it. The cell-based architecture makes Monday highly flexible to fit any type of organization, industry or use case. 

However, as it is designed as data-first, not process-first, you will find it uneasy to get your work done on Monday.

Take the approval process as an example: if you were a manager, you’d have to sift through countless rows and columns, scrolling horizontally to browse through all the information you need for your decision. 

If you look at bad reviews about Monday on G2, you’ll usually bump into something like these:

If your team hasn’t used any kind of software before and they must switch from the manual, paper way to the overwhelming, uninspiring cells and columns, it can be utterly distressing. Even the Automation builder section itself can go messy - right now there is no way to categorize the automations you have set up. The cognitive overload is no joke. 

Rework, on the other hand, is built around your daily processes from the ground up. It takes a glance to grasp the concept of each application.  

For example, in our Request app, creating a request is as simple and intuitive as performing the task in real life: click "Create a Request”, fill out the form, and submit it. The approver then gets a notification, reviews the form, and makes a decision. All these Processes are recorded in the system, creating actionable Data you can analyze at any time.

The interface of Rework Request - with information stated in a structured way, specifically designed to effectively address the challenges of managing approvals.

We even have the Datasets application where you can integrate the internal database into daily operations so that everyone can speak in the same language.

Let's compare another example of a video production process between the two platforms. In Monday, you have to set up multiple boards, then connect across boards to see the progress of a single video. It's more about managing the work list than collaborating and seeing where work is actually going. 

In contrast, this is how such a workflow is visualized on Rework Flows - our process management app.

It may look like a simple Kanban board, but it is built with every detail needed to operate a process. 

This isn’t just about functionality - it’s about empowering every user to operate efficiently, from managers to frontline employees.  

One further problem is while Monday offers powerful tools, its effectiveness depends heavily on your ability to imagine and design the right workflows. Sure, you can customize it to track things like SLA times, but you have to figure it out yourself. There’s no built-in guidance to help you make those decisions - so you end up doing a lot of trial and error. Their template store may help a little, but the mere effort to understand the template to be able to customize it is enough challenging. 

That’s not how technology should work. It should support you, not leave you guessing.

At Rework, we believe technology is more than just a tool - it’s a methodology. Our platform is built on the lessons we learned scaling our own startup from 30 to 300 employees. That experience shaped Rework into a solution that’s intuitive, practical, and deeply aligned with real-world operations needs, whether you’re leading a team or executing daily tasks. 

We think that Monday is trying to solve this problem by customizing their core product for specific use cases like Monday CRM or Monday Dev. But at the center of it, it is still the cell-based architecture, and it is more about us logging in the data within the cells, rather than really operating. 

To sum up, this is our recommendation: 

Monday.com - Suitable for small or flat teams in need of peer-to-peer collaboration. Technical expertise or at least familiarity with technical stuff is recommended.  

Rework.com - Suitable for middle or (small but) middle-to-be teams in search of better top-down management. No technical experience required. 

However, price-to-value considered, we still think that Monday is too expensive for what it has to offer. If you’re only looking for a system of record, just start with Google Sheets first. If you want to operate on that system, you’d better be rich.

The features

Let’s not beat around the bush - I compiled a list of key features compared between the two, and I will only focus on some popular, advanced ones that most customers often ask for. 

However, due to different approaches in the product design philosophy, each platform will have a unique way of implementing these features. Take recurring tasks as an example:

In Rework, setting up recurring tasks is straightforward - simply navigate head to the designated feature section and describe the task you want to repeat. 

In Monday, you need to access the Automation builder center. From there, create an automation that reads "Every time period, then …”, then further refine the setup from here. While this allows for flexibility, it also requires more effort and understanding of the system. 

The difference once again highlights our focus on simplicity and efficiency, whereas Monday demands more customization and technical input to achieve the same result.

Other aspects you may care about

The customer support service

I must say 1-0 for Rework at this point. We say no to support chatbot and delayed email tickets, and instead have a dedicated support manager for your implementation project. 

Based on our experience with thousands of customers, we even developed a framework named SPET to ensure the implementation success rate - we know that the tech transition process can be overwhelming and challenging for any business. 

Our customer support and product teams are highly aligned. That means you don’t have to wait for years for answers to your product questions, like when will a certain feature be available, or whether our product team are even considering it.

When we say we appreciate our customer feedback, it’s not just lip service - we spend time listening to customers and we do it seriously. We set up review meetings with customers at certain milestones during the implementation project to discuss how you can really operate better with Rework.  

Just a little feedback on the system speed and our customer support and product team worked on it immediately. Thankfully our customer felt satisfied.   

The brand

Unquestionably, Monday scores this time. Founded in 2012, Monday surely has a long, established history with SaaS applications. Contrary to the renowned, market-leading Monday.com which is trusted globally with more than 200,000 customers, Rework is just an underdog. 

Currently, we have served clients in 7+ countries (Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Australia and South Africa), and established offices in the Philippines and Malaysia. Further expansion is sure to come shortly. 

The team

In case you’re curious about the people behind the product, this is a picture of our team (sadly I didn’t get myself in this pic 😔 ) 

My favorite people - the young, hungry and foolish team at Rework. The man sitting in the light blue jeans at the center is our founder and CEO, also the chief product architect, who still codes every day.   

Long story short

I have said everything I have to say and although I said it’s a little biased, I did try to stay as fair as possible. All that's left is for you to decide. Which one do you prefer: the David or the Goliath? It comes down to your needs, your budget, your business culture, and your tech literacy. If you can’t even be so sure about that, why don’t you head to a meeting with us and we'll help you find out?